Crawl – Necrotic Fear

April 2019 – Anomalous Mind Records

Crawl is a one-man project I stumbled upon in 2018, after the release of their split with Leviathan, opening with the irate At the Forge of Hate, which might have been the heaviest side on any Leviathan split ever. Necrotic Fear continues the tradition of whipping the listener in the face with bass strings, but for pacing's sake the album is broken up by sinister lulls like the alcoves on the cover, providing refuge from the wind tunnel that the other songs seem to imitate. Everything from the art to the drums is distorted, almost feeling like a more noise based project than a metal one, and we're in the territory of the non-riff, where feedback and drone are how hatred are expressed. Let's go with blackened sludge.

The opener and closer are similar in that they both showcase a more subtly menacing approach, akin to dark ambient, but in different ways. Paralyzed, I Awaken... is a melancholic dirge, the soundtrack to a suicide forest with trees bearing rotting human fruit, whereas Summoning Ixtab is a more intense yet more drawn-out view of an open mass grave, its stench coming in waves as the guitar swells in and out of a cranked reverb pedal. A Broken Lich is where I finally recognized the Crawl I knew, with the same livid screams and crushing slow pace they had on their split. Cymbals like a pit of rattlesnakes surround the expanding bass, both fighting for the largest sonic estate in an ominous duel of highs and lows. Descending Further Into Cyclical Hatred follows, building upon the negative disharmony and propelling the record into more energetic territories, with beats you can actually solemnly nod to. An aptly titled track, as the first and only riff appears and an inevitable rictus draws itself onto my lips. I Desperatly Cry is the final song that isn't ambient, and notably uses a vocal synth, as if trying to impose discernable notes on an otherwise harmonically-barren wasteland.

The title track and its follow-up would serve as excellent introductions to a funeral doom record, a keyed instrument slowly working its way through a sombre chord progression while a cold breeze carries whispers to and from your ears, just long enough to ascribe them to a lost soul in the distance. It's difficult to decide whether Crawl excels more at ambient tracks than at blackened sludge, both of which take an effective, relatively minimalist approach to composition. Either way, Necrotic Fear is probably the best album in its genre, whatever it may be, from this year.

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